Last night I was making
homemade salsa and I started thinking about the process it took for that salsa
to become real. Back in November of last
year I scoured through the pages of my heirloom garden book carefully selecting
which types of tomatoes I wanted to grow this year, then in December I placed
my order and anxiously awaited their arrival.
In late January when my seeds arrived I set-up our growing tables in the
basement and carefully counted out 2 seeds for each little pot I had filled
with dirt. I watered the tomatoes,
placed a cover over my growing containers, moved them under my grow lights and
waited with faith that these tomatoes would grow. I waited and waited and
waited and then one day, I went downstairs and found 4 of my plants had started
to grow. This happened over and over
again for weeks, little sprouts coming-up and reaching towards the light until
it was time to remove the covers and place a fan in the room to mimic wind and
make my plants strong. It’s always at
this point that Mr. Ladd examines my plants and says “those sure do look
scrawny, are you sure those are going to survive?” Each year I reassure him that I have faith
they will not only survive but thrive.
Once the tomato plants look healthy by my standards, I take them outside
to enjoy hours of sun until the day after Mother’s day. Mr. Ladd always says “You better plant those
tomato plants or you won’t have any tomatoes!”
I reassure him that I will have plenty of tomatoes and they will be the
sweetest most beautiful tomatoes he’s ever seen, because I have faith that all
that hard work will pay off.
Once I plant my tomatoes I
watch them carefully to make sure they are getting enough sun and water or if
they need to be moved or covered. This
year because of the heat we had to water our tomato plants twice a day and the
blooms came on later than usual. Mr.
Ladd said “I don’t think you are going to get any tomatoes!” I reassured him that not only would I have
tomatoes but there would be plenty because I had faith that all that hard work
was going to pay off. Sure enough, this
week we picked over 5 gallons of tomatoes from our garden – all different
colors too – purple, red, hot pink, green, yellow, orange – all of them tasting
delicious. Mr. Ladd always says after
our first big picking “I knew you would get lots of tomatoes!”
Anybody know what faith
is? One of the definitions in the
dictionary says it’s believing in somebody or something, especially without
logical proof
Jesus says in Luke 17:6 “ If
you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this
mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you”
Can you imagine telling a
tree – get up and move you lazy thing and go crawl in the lake? I can’t either, but I can imagine having
faith that can create tomatoes for a jar of salsa, faith that a loved one will
get well after being sick, faith that someone I love will come to know Jesus,
faith that God will take care of me when I am tired or lonely or scared or sick
or lost. I hope that you can find that
same faith. Let’s pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank
you for today, for your love and kindness and grace. Thank you for this beautiful weather and for
all my tomatoes this week. Thank you for
each one of the children here in this church today. I pray that each one of these children are
able to find faith in you. I also pray
that you would reaffirm the faith of those gathered here today. We love you and praise you and pray all of
these things, in Jesus name. Amen.
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